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Dealing with Furry Feet

Geoff the Airedale gets brushed every day (he hates this - I'm working on that). Any suggestions why this might be. I use a soft rubber grooming glove which his breeder suggested. But I digress.

We go through the hold each paw, put my fingers between his pads thing which his breeder said was important because they have hair growing between their pads. Most days I will get one or two burrs that have worked their way up so I wriggle them out. I am noticing the he has some small mats between his paws.

At the moment I get my daughter to pretty continuously click and treat while he is lying on his side, meanwhile I try to cut them out with nail scissors. This doesn't seem to be a very efficient way to deal with them. Is there an easier solution? Am I worrying over nothing?

sorry to be a bit thick, but do you mean clippers like hair clippers? How do you fit them between their toes? Are they really little ones? We have a set to do my husbands hair and I can't see how I could get them close enough to his skin to get the mats out.

Thanks very much for the links. Geoff had a nice short haircut when we got him, but 2 trips to hospital in 2 week have given him some fairly radical short bits on his arms.

How often do you clip Hamish? Do you do it yourself? Do you do between his toes on his paws. I am so worried about ticks I don't know if I should not worry about looking Airedalish in summer and just go really short.

I am sorry I still haven't worked out how to put photos of Geoff on to show everyone. I will have to ask my daughter to get me organised.

And one thing slightly off topic - does Hamish like water? When we got Geoff his breeder said don't let him near a pool without supervision, watch him near the lake, etc, etc. So far the closest he has got to getting wet is pawing in about 2 cm at the edge of the lake. He doesn't like being near the pool when the kids are there, doesn't like when there are wind waves on the lake, doesn't like it when there is now waves on the lake. He does love sand though and his idea of seventh heaven is playing on the beach (well away from the water).

I just use regular clippers like you would use to shave someones head. The blades are very wide but you just use the corner to get into small crevices like the feet.
You can save a ton of money on grooming if you learn to do it all yourself.
Cheap clippers will be fine for doing feet, but if you want to step up and do the whole dog I'd invest in a more expensive set.

What I do is lay them on their side and hold their paw, then I push against their toes with my fingers, and push against the pad with my thumb which makes their whole foot splay open underneath giving easy access.
I also do in bwtween the toes but that might look a bit strange on any dog but a poodle

Clippers are machines like electric shavers or sheep shears (the new sort not the scissor sort). Like the number 1 haircut that blokes sometimes get - those kind of clippers.

I find Airedales are prone to dags if they're not properly crutched. (clipped around the anus). I can't believe one Airedale owner I know pays for their dog to be clipped professionally and they don't crutch (even with scissors).

You would train a dog to be ok with the machine the same way as the instructions for dremmeling claws. Might take a week or so and a lot of treats...

Brushing, I use a rubber curry comb or wet fingers. Start with wet fingers and work up to the curry comb. Pay attention to how much pressure you can use, ie my dog prefers a nice firm massage to light blowfly touches. She, like my horse, hates the plastic bristle brush. I'm not surprised but some furballs like it.

My dog love the water. She has webbed feet. My cousins Airedales love water. I can't see what the problem would be as long as they always come out when you call and you dry the coat out thoroughly.

I would love Geoff to love the water. We live near a lake and a beach and an off lead dog park near Pittwater, but he won't have a bar of it yet. Time will tell. he doesn't even like playing with the hose, which was my old Kelpie's number one favourite game in the world.

I have a set of hair clippers, my husband gets a number 0, so I can have them going next to Geoff, while I click and treat. His breeder has clipped him a number of times, so I don't think it would come as a suprise to him. I'm just not sure I am brave enough to clip him, but I guess it's like a people haircut, after the first few days it will look ok.

Every brush I have tried (rubber grooming glove, rubber curry comb, horse body brush, wire pin brush) has been met with the same amount of distaste. I just don't think he likes the feeling of being brushed. I will try varying the pressure I use. I need to put this on his list of things to learn to do.

We are click and treating handling his feet at the moment. As for dremelling his nails, if he walks on concrete (twice a day at least 30 minutes each time) do you think I still need to trim his nails. I thought that would be enough to keep them tidy.